MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - The next Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit will take place in Moscow in December 2010, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

"We plan to hold the next CIS summit in Moscow in December of next year, and an informal meeting of CIS heads is due to take place in May 2010," Andrei Nesterenko said.

On Friday, a CIS summit will be held in Moldova's capital, Chisinau. Discussions are set to focus on cooperation in overcoming the consequences of the global financial crisis, as well as humanitarian and security issues.

The former Soviet states of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine are members of the CIS. Georgia recently withdrew from the organization.